USA Electoral College 2004

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2001
USA Electoral College 2004
59
Wed, 10-13-2004 - 5:30pm
Dear IVillagers,

Nothing would please me more than eliminating the Electoral College system,

and having a "one person equals one vote" system,

to reflect exactly the votes of USA citizens.

Nonetheless, as IVillage cl-Libraone has noted here on IVillage,

that Colorado has the option to vote into law that Colorado's Electoral College votes be 'split' between the candidates- proportioned to be much more a reflection of voter's

actual votes.



Colorado's system shall be better than the present mess,

and would go into effect this election, if passed by Colorado voters-

my hope is that this does indeed happen, Election 2004 !!!

ForeverHugs,

--Genietowner

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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Thu, 10-14-2004 - 11:39pm
< I have a sympathy for those who live off the beaten path, so to speak, that they might not get a lot of attention in an election for president, but not to the point that I think their vote should count more than someone who lives in a large city. >

The point is not to have sympathy for them or that their vote should count more-the point is our founding fathers devised a way to balance the interests of individual states within our republic with the interests of the general population. States rights were, and remain, a huge issue. If you recall the American Revolution was in large part due to people feeling unfairly represented by a strong central government-our founding fathers were acutely aware of the need to balance power between the federal government and local, grass roots interests.

It was a brilliant compromise, not a dumb one, and has worked quite well up and until we ended up with an election of such ridiculously close outcome. I hope and pray that doesn't happen again, but like I said there is no hope anyway of the electoral college being done away with. You'll never get the 3/4 of states needed to ratify such a measure, as it would only benefit a few of the most populous states.


Edited 10/14/2004 11:43 pm ET ET by liveanew

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Thu, 10-14-2004 - 11:42pm


And I can understand the innate appeal of each person's vote counting equally. But again, we don't live in a true democracy, we live in a democratic republic, for many reasons of independance and self-governance the idea of states rights being balanced with the rights of the majority is a great one, IMO.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2004
Thu, 10-14-2004 - 11:52pm
I am not discounting your concerns, the house of representatives has many districts that are rural in make-up. In a presidential election I think it is not the same thing. The president represents no particular state (or shouldn't anyway) he represents every person in the country. So where do states come in in that? IMO they don't.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 12:03am
Where are the "states rights" in a state like Rhode Island or Delaware having exactly the same amout of senators as a state like Texas or Florida? Just calling some small geographic area a state for traditions sake while ignoring the disparity in voting power to me is promoting an elitist mentality that our founding fathers professed to be against.
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 12:08am
Been there done that. The election was four years ago, Bush won, I've read all the hysterical left wing propanganda on it and none of it has changed my mind so far. I'm sorry you had to waste so much time and effort posting all those links. I won't be reading them, I'll be looking towards the future not dwelling on the past thanks.
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 12:13am


Well, that's why we have two houses of Congress-one in which each state is represented equally, and one which is population based. Another brilliant compromise balancing states rights with proportional representation.

< Just calling some small geographic area a state for traditions sake >

Not sure what you mean by that-are you advocating we dissolve states and become one big heap? States evolved into separate entities based on geographic factors, differences in industry and culture, and even today I think most states have very different and often competing interests that ought to be represented, at least in some sort of balance with population based representation.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 12:21am
But do you know they're truthful? Why don't people like to question their government? Why when somebody tries to talk to them about it who worked on the campaign they just walk away?
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2004
Fri, 10-15-2004 - 12:31am
I agree with what you are saying up to a point. The problem I have with the way it is now is that there is such a HUGE disparity between the smallest states and the largest that I think it is quite an injustice. If you take all the senators there are in a geographical area such as New England and compare that to California or Florida that each have only two, and then you consider how much power the senate has in our government, then it looks quite unfair to me. I have a feeling of comfortable familiarity with the way it is now, but that doesn't make it right for those people who live in states that get under-represented in the way I just described.

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